It has been 238 days since I participated in the Pacific Coast Triathlon. It was my second triathlon and I was hoping to improve on what I had started earlier in the year. Here is a brief run down of the event, based on what I remember and the recorded results. I’m trying to get caught up here, sorry. Little Brooke came along 30 days after the event and all was pretty much halted after that! I will be participating in this thing come July, so it is good to refresh my memory in preparation for it.

The 2008 Pacific Coast Triathlon was held on 9/7/2008. The location was Newport Coast, CA, which is between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. The course is a step up in difficulty in comparison to the Newport Beach Tri.

Here are the highlights:
SWIM: 1/2 mile.
Open water, in the El Moro cove.
CYCLE: 12 miles.
Up and down PCH a couple times. A steady stream of rolling hills will make you work.
RUN: 3 miles.
The run follows PCH and works its way down the bluff to the beach. It continues on the beach for a good half mile, and then climbs back up the bluff to the top where it finishes.
Here are my results:

Field

Value

Group Placement

Time

1:20:33

23/76

Swim (0.5 mi)

16:55

39/76

Transition 1

2:06

18/76

Bike (12 mi)

36:44

12/76

Transition 2

1:22

23/76

Run (3 mi)

23:35

39/76

The bike leg was once again my strength. I felt ok with everything except the run. I wanted to be more around a 7:15 – 7:30 pace, instead of 7:48, more on that later.

Arrival

Getting to the event isn’t the easiest thing. There is very limited parking, and since PCH gets closed in one direction, if you park in the close lots, you aren’t able to leave until later in the morning. I ended up parking a couple miles up the road, throwing everything in my backpack, and riding over to the transition area. It is kind of funny, because its like 5:30 in the morning, it is dark, and everyone is arriving at the lot and getting their stuff together. You have to ride down a steep path, go through a tunnel that goes under PCH, and then go up the hill on the other side to get you back up to PCH, so you can ride the rolling hills to get to the transition area. It is a little work out in and of itself.

Swim

The transition area (where all your stuff is) is up on the bluff. So to get to actual race start, you have to walk down the steep path to the beach, then down the beach a quarter mile or so.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

View of the Swim

My bike (first bike on the right) in the transition area (bad cell phone photo)

View from the Start

Each group gathered and waited for the buzzer to go off to signal the start. The start was on the sand, about 20-30 yards from the water. My group lined up, and the buzzer sounded. I took about five steps, hit a clump of sand and fell on my face. I curled up and waited to get trampled but no one ran into/over me so I laughed, got back up, and entered the water. The bunch up didn’t seem too bad, but then again, I was towards the rear of the group since I had biffed on entry.

Once we got through the surf, the water wasn’t bad. The tide swayed a little, but overall the motion of the water wasn’t too bad. I noticed some fish swimming directly underneath me. I guess they liked staying in my shadow. That was a little disconcerting. You do have some interesting thoughts as you are swimming along, especially since earlier that summer, a tri-athlete was killed by a shark attack down the coast, near San Diego.

I plowed ahead at a reasonable pace. I passed some folks and some folks passed me. When I got past the last buoy, I turned towards the beach and got to ride some waves in. I was happy to have that out the way, but not so happy to have to climb the bluff back up to the transition area. Jogging up that thing in bare feet with half a wet suit on wasn’t very fun. It definitely drives up the heart rate.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

View of the Surf (thats not me)

After The Swim (that is me & I'm not in a big hurry)

Path to Transtition

Transition 1 (T1)

Nothing memorable to note here other than my feet were really sandy. I brushed them off all best as I could. It is always fun to put nice dry socks on over wet sandy feet.

Bike

I felt pretty good on the bike. It was a hilly course. I passed a lot of folks. Some would pass me going down the hill or on the flats, but I’d go right back by them up the hill. There wasn’t a lot of wind but it didn’t take much to add to the pain of the hills. Drafting is prohibited, and looked to be enforced. The end results listed a number of folks with drafting penalties.

In looking at the data from the GPS that was on my bike, it looks like I was able to sustain my speed and even get a little faster on the second loop. The race timing data put me averaging 19.6 mile per hour, my GPS had me at 20.1. It is always nice to be able to keep around 20 mph when there are rolling hills around.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

Pacific Coast Bike Course

Data from Bike

Bike 2

Bike 1

Transition 2 (T2)

Not much to note here either. I dumped the bike and my gear and put on my shoes and number and headed out.

Run

I started to notice a pain on my right foot. It got worse and worse - and it felt like my toes were asleep. The run wasn’t any fun at all. The way out is up and down, then you made a hard left and followed the trail down to the beach. At that point my toes were getting worse but I kept going. Then I hit the beach and was completely miserable.

I was tired, my foot was hurting, and then I had to run through a half mile of loose, wet sand. I was crying uncle. (After the event, I realized that my fall at the beginning of the race was due to stubbing my toes into the sand. Later that afternoon, my toes were swollen and bruised, much like when you jam your fingers playing basketball. That explained why my toes were hurting and felt like they were asleep. What a bonehead move!).

The reward for making it through the sand was another climb. By the time I hit that thing, it felt like I was going backwards. I kept taking the smallest steps known to man, and kept moving. People were there cheering everyone on. I kept wondering how bad I had to be looking. As bad as I felt, I was able to get up the hill without anyone passing me on it. At the top, there was another gentle climb, and then it was pretty flat with even a slight downhill finish.

As I headed to the finish, I didn’t have any kick. I heard the PA announcer mention to the crowd something to the effect of “this is where you can really make yourself hurt, depending on how hard you can push yourself”. No doubt about that. I wasn’t in the mood to be pushing myself any more. Some guy behind me was. I heard his friends and family cheering him on. Then I heard him expel the contents of his stomach. The next words of encouragement were something like “Awe man!”, then “Its OK! You’re almost to the finish”.

I got over the finish line and immediately began to drink and eat everything in sight. Then I had to pack up all my wet sweaty gear, jam it into my backpack and ride my bike back to the car.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

Elevation and Grade Chart

Portion of the run course on the beach.

Run on the beach.

The Finish

Final Thoughts

It must have taken me 45 min to get back to the car. With all the road closures, and pedestrian traffic, there was nowhere to go. So many people were trying to figure out how to get across PCH. The police at one light would tell people they have to walk a mile down the road to the next light. When I got to that light on my bike, I heard the police telling people they had to go back to other light. I’m glad I had my bike with me.

Looking back on it, I didn’t do too bad. I had hopes of improving on times from my previous triathlon, but this course was much tougher. I do plan on improving my times this year, as there shouldn’t be any surprises. Hopefully I can chip away a little at each discipline and gain a couple minutes.

Busy day today. Dad woke up at 05:00 so he could ride and run and then work for a couple hours. Then we hit the snow hill, and wrapped up the day up in Redondo Beach hanging out on Paul and Pam’s boat.

It is going to be a rough year for the basketball Hoosiers but they are going down the right path. Meanwhile the IU football team shows they can put a victory together with good offense and a great defense.

I just updated the web site software last night, so hopefully this gets out to everyone. I have a new spam filter for the comments, so hopefully everyone’s comments will appear now (I had to mark over 900 comments as spam last night).

Everything is going good on the home front. I (Mike) have been working from home this week getting caught back up. Angie is doing great with Brooke and Paige. I’m amazed how fast she recuperated. Angie’s mom and dad are in town helping out.

After spending Christmas Eve in California we headed to the airport on Christmas Day to fly back to St. Louis. Paige had a fun time with her cousin Colin, both sets of Grandparents, and even Great Grandma Gogi. I also went to two hockey games back to back. First it was the Duck’s and Maple Leafs then the Kings and Maple Leafs where we got to sit in our own private luxury box. I am diggin’ these kinds of events.

Paige was more interested in playing with her things then looking at the camera
Thankfully there wasn’t anyone in the middle seat so I could stretch out

The full results are here if you’d like to see how fast some of these guys are. My number was 145 if you want to search for me.

Here are my results:

Field

Value

Group Placement

Time

1:24:49.1

8/64

Swim (0.5 mi)

16:02.0

13/64

Transition 1

2:24.6

21/64

Bike (15 mi)

43:19.1

5/64

Transition 2

1:11.2

16/64

Run (3 mi)

21:52.4

16/64

The Course

Keep in mind the scale on this. The hills are by no means mountains, but you’ll have to work to get up them. I recorded the course with my garmin GPS a couple weeks before the event.

Course Profile

Swimming
I was in the Men 30-34 group with 63 other guys, but 50+ also started with us so I’m not sure what the total ‘herd’ was at the beginning. It was a bit tough to navigate the water in the crowd, but I think my days of cross country running in high school helped because it was basically the same concept - try and relax and survive until it thins out. I can’t swim in a straight line, but other than that I was ok. I rented a wetsuit and it kept me nice and warm. I don’t have any pictures of the swim.

Transition 1
Upon leaving the water, I had to step up a small sand embankment (probably about 3 ft tall), then jog through the parking lot, around the fence, into the transition area, and through the transition area until I came to where my stuff was parked. I was wearing a chip around my ankle, and that is how the my times were kept. Whenever you enter or leave a transition area, you go over a mat that reads the chip and sends a signal to a computer to let it know. After leaving the beach, there was a girl with a hose that hit my feet with a blast of water to get most of the sand off.

I was slooow in transition area 1. I was paranoid that I was going to forget something. I pretty much took my time getting the wetsuit off, drying my feet, getting my socks and shoes on, putting on my helmet and glasses, getting a drink of water and setting off. I jogged my bike out of the transition area and past the line where you allowed to mount your bike. A lot of guys were doing some crazy run and jump on the bike which looked straight out of Little 500, but I took it safe. I just stopped, got on the bike got up to speed.

Bike

I look relaxed

Not so aerodynamic.

I felt good on the bike. I was still wet from getting out of the water. I wore these clothes under my wetsuit. They actually dry pretty fast, but they stayed wet from my perspiration.

I kept a pretty steady pace and slowly and steadily gobbled people up. The course was a two lap course with a nice little wall to be climbed one during each lap. I’ve been biking a lot over the last couple of years so I figured I’d do ok on this leg. I was hoping to stay near 22-24 and when I looked down at my bike computer it verified that I was holding speed. I think the hill and U-turns kept my speed down. I think I could have gone harder, but I was saving some up for the run. I liked the little climb and got by a lot of people on it and the steady rise that followed it. On my way down it the second time, I saw a bunch of riders starting to get caught up in a mob on it. I’m glad I didn’t have to contend with that.

I have to admit that I came out around a turn a bit fast and overran the center dividing line. A guy coming at me almost messed his drawers. I calmly told him, “Sorry about that dude” and kept motoring. The course was a bit narrow and tight so I really couldn’t go all out and had to pay attention to my surroundings. I had a cliff bar with me on the ride and I took a couple of bites during the second lap. It wasn’t a lot but enough to keep a little something in my belly.

Transition 2
At the end of the ride, I braked at the dismount line. Some guy behind me didn’t brake soon enough and came skidding over the line. I thought he was going to eat it. I smiled, ran into the transition area, found my spot, put the bike up, took off my helmet, took off my shoes, put on my shoes, put on my running number, grabbed a little drink and headed out.

Run
The part I dreaded was here. My legs didn’t really want to run. I took small steps and tried to keep them moving. I just thought, 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back. No big deal. I was shooting for 7:30 minute miles so I just kept moving those legs. There was about 4 others leaving the transition at the same time as me. I tried not to fall back from them too much. I kept up my pace and I got passed by a couple of guys (and by some freaking little teenagers). When I got to the hill at the end I made pretty good time up it. I passed a couple of guys who were struggling on it. That cross country mentality helped me out. I made it up the hill, turned around and went back down it. I knew I was at the home stretch and the worst was behind me.

There is a bridge that crosses the bay and keeps it isolated from the boat slips and the rest of the bay that leads out to the ocean. On the way out, you run over the bridge and on the way back, you cross it as you near the finish line. I knew when I hit that bridge I was almost done.

Almost done!

I picked up the pace and caught up to the 62 year old guy who passed me about a mile and a half back right as I came up to the finish shoot. It felt good to be done, and all by about 8:15 in the morning. Time for breakfast in downtown HB with Angie and Paige!

Our dear friends, the Carroll’s moved down to Florida this month. Casey didn’t want to leave the comfortable bed.

While we will miss them lots we had so much fun while they were out in California and we now have another coast to visit often.

Paige really started feeding herself this month-even though half of it would end up in her bib! She has been “talking” a lot and showing off her new teeth coming in-which will make 8 once they are all in. Paige loves to wave “bye bye” and sqeals when she sees pictures of herselfx

Paige was a traveling girl this month. With a trip up to Paso Robles or wine country in Southern California for a grape stomp with our friend Rise’.

It was a fun day of food, grapes, and of course wine. Although Paige just got to watch she still had fun.

Our friend Kevin rented a Lambourghini for the day for a work function and brought it by for the kids to sit in the seats. As you can see Paige does not like being in the passenger seat.

Then a few weeks later we were off to Maui for a few days of relaxation with the family. We met up with our dear friends Kevin, Karyn, and their son Casey. Paige and Casey had a fun time playing in the pool and Paige had her first feel of sand at the beach. (Yes we flew all the way to Maui from Southern California for this).
Then it was back to Southern California for brief visit with Uncle Chris at LAX

and a trip to the fire house with Casey.
Some of Paige’s fun past times are going to the park with her buddy Casey and having pajama parties.

A lot happened in this month. Paige was in the starting phase of crawling. She would rock back and forth and then push herself backwards. She would rather hold on to our fingers and “walk” around. She did go to into a sitting position from her tummy for the first time which was neat to see. She also had two of her top teeth coming in within a week of each other. Uncle Danny came for a visit and all of us, including Nanny Anna went to the Angels game. Paige took her first train ride with Uncle Danny too.
Mommy and Paige went to Houston for mommy’s work and Grandma T. flew in to watch Paige. We even spent some time with dear friends Matt & Becky and their two daughters. I know they had a great time.

It’s amazing how fast she is changing. At about 5 1/2 months she started cutting her first tooth. The second bottom tooth was not too far behind. At her 6 month check up she was 26 3/4″- 80% percentile 16#4oz- 50%, I like to say long and skinny like mommy. Her Dr. was surprised to see teeth so early (so was mommy). Paige has been saying lots of Da Da’s, Ya Ya’s, and Ga Ga’s. Enjoy these pictures of her!

Paige was so happy to be out furniture shopping and loved sitting in her mini leather chair

Paige had some new milestones this month. She started to sit up unassisted if only for a few moments and she also started on rice cereal. By the end of her 5th month she was sitting up pretty good. Here are a couple of pics for month 5.

We are sorry it has taken so long to get a new post up on our site but as you can imagine things have been pretty hectic around here. At Paige’s 4 month check up she was 14lbs. 7 oz. and 25 3/4″ long. She is definitely long like mommy. We have had a busy month. Paige went to an Angel game and saw the Duck’s win the Stanley Cup all in one week. She has been doing a lot of rolling over-we often find her on her tummy in bed. Paige is currently 5 1/2 months and is almost sitting up unassisted. She started doing that a couple of weeks ago when Granny and Grampy (Angie’s parents) were in town. We are getting ready to start her on rice cereal and will be sure to post pictures and a video. I hope these 100 pictures will keep you busy until the next post!

I figured I’d throw in a picture of Paige and me just to let everyone know that I’m still here. Angie went to run some errands but upon leaving she asked me to get a picture of Paige’s outfit. This was my first attempt. You should have seen me setting the timer on the camera and running over to try and hit my mark. Paige seemed to enjoy going back and forth, of course the smile went away when I stood still for the camera.

Paige is now starting to wear some really cute outfits. I have promised myself no more clothes for Paige but they are too hard to resist. Luckily she is very good about letting Mommy put her in just about anything. At 13 weeks she is making a whole lot of noises and can lift her head up pretty far when she is laying on her back. She loves sucking on her hands and likes to shove them all the way in her mouth which of course causes her to cough. But it doesn’t stop her!

Paige has started to drool a lot and loves putting her fists in her mouth. She has also discovered her feet and likes to stick them in the air. She is “talking” to us and smiles and laughs (and snorts) all the time. She has also started reaching out for mommy wehn she walks by. Mommy and Paige have been going on walks, riding in the car, and enjoying the California frigid winter of 70 degrees. Mommy goes back to work next week but Grandma T. is coming in for a week to help make the transition a lot smoother. Paige will have a nanny starting soon-we’ll get her picture up as soon as we choose one.